Java is a very popular sophisticated programming environment. Applications written in the Java language are run inside a virtual machine (Java Virtual Machine, JVM) which provides a nearly identical behavior on all platforms that have a JVM implementation available. This "write once, run anywhere" approach means that
developers can support a multitude of platforms while only having to maintain one code base. For users, availability of a current Java for OS/2 and eComStation means access to a huge number of existing applications.

Previously, Java had been made available for OS/2 and eComStation by IBM, Golden Code and Innotek. However, new versions with many changes and improvements have been released since then and current applications require a current JVM implementation. This project will port such a current JVM to OS/2 and eComStation. Dmitriy Kuminov, who is well-known for his work on the Qt 3 and 4 ports, has been hired as chief developer.

This project aims at porting the open-source implementation of the Java Platform, Standard Edition, known as OpenJDK, to the OS/2 operating system. You can get more information about OpenJDK and related projects at the ​official OpenJDK home page.

Sponsoring

Partial funding is already provided by several companies and individuals, with Mensys BV being the main sponsor, but we still need to cover an amount of 8,000 EUR. If you are interested in sponsoring Java please contact Silvan Scherrer (silvan dot scherrer at aroa dot ch) directly or buy sponsoring units (like explained below).

In case you wonder what happened: Initially, funding was fully assured but one sponsor decided to redirect funds to another OS/2-related project. We did not loose the sponsor completely, but this project did.

If you would like to contribute to this port, you are welcome to buy a sponsoring unit for that at Mensys. 100% of that money will be transferred to netlabs.org.

Sponsoring Barometer

Current Status

As of the 21th of Friday, 2011, the project has entered the RC (release candidate) stage.

Latest Version

The latest version of OpenJDK 6 is 1.6.0-b22 WSE released on 12.05.2011. This is a special build dedicated to the ​Warpstock Europe 2011 event that took place 6 to 8 May 2011 in the nice city of Haarlem in The Netherlands. This build brings fixed printing support and the fix for the Java process hang on SMP machines.

SDK package, same as above but with all executables marked as MPUNSAFE which makes them more or less stable on SMP machines by sticking to a single core (rare hangs are still possible).

If you want to play with the latest development version, you can check it out directly from the SVN repository. In order to do so you need to download and install the subversion client for eCS (OS/2). Use the following command to check out the full source tree to a <local_directory>:

The required tools and build instructions are described in the README​ file.

Reporting Bugs

Reporting bugs and requesting new features is done through the ticket system. You can view existing tickets, add comments to them and create new tickets using the corresponding buttons at the top of every page. If you want to submit a new bug or request a feature, please use the Search function first to make sure there is no ticket for this task already created.
We review the tickets regulary and leave comments if we need more info. So please revisit the ​Feedback analysis as often as possible. If we leave comment and don't get feedback from the ticket creator, we will close the ticket after some weeks.

Anonymous access to the ticket system has been restricted due to multiple attacks of stupid spammers we've been suffering from lately. In order to create a new ticket or comment the existing one, you need to login with your Netlabs login id.
If you do not have a login id, you can request one at ​http://www.netlabs.org/en/site/member/member.xml.
We are sorry for inconvenience, but at the present time this is the only way to avoid extremely annoying spam.